1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical demultiplexer that demultiplexes signal light having a plurality of wavelength components and outputs from a plurality of output ports thereof, and to an optical transmission system including the optical demultiplexer.
2. Description of the Background Art
In an optical transmission system, by transmitting signal light through a transmission line made of an optical fiber, a large volume of information can be transmitted and received at high speed. Above all, in a wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) optical transmission system, signals (wavelength components) which have different wavelengths are multiplexed and transmitted through an optical fiber transmission line, whereby a greater capacity of information can be transmitted.
In this WDM optical transmission system, it is important to suppress the deterioration of the waveform of each signal transmitted through the optical fiber transmission line. The signal waveform deterioration in the WDM optical transmission system is mainly caused by the accumulated chromatic dispersion and nonlinear optical phenomena. In particular, when high density multiplexing is performed, it is essential to suppress signal-waveform deterioration caused by four-wave mixing, which is one of the nonlinear optical phenomena.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 9-247091 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 6,366,376) discloses an invention intended to suppress the occurrence of four-wave mixing. In the disclosed optical transmission system, the arrangement of optical frequencies of the signals transmitted through the optical fiber transmission line is contrived so as to prevent the wavelength of four-wave mixed light generated on an optical fiber transmission line from being superimposed on the wavelengths of signals.
The above invention is suitable for use in a system including an optical demultiplexer. Specifically, in the case of optical transmission lines (e.g., optical transmission lines for an access system) connected to output ports of an optical demultiplexer, signal-waveform deterioration due to four-wave mixing can be suppressed by arranging the optical frequencies of signals as described in the above publication. In addition, even if a low-dispersion optical fiber is used for an optical transmission line, signal-waveform deterioration caused by four-wave mixing is suppressed, and in this case, the need for a dispersion compensator is eliminated, thus reducing the cost of the system.